RAILROAD MEMORIES:
The Q's First Mobile Agent
By Mike Hobbs
When
nineteen year-old Cliff Meadows went to work for Western Union at 33 S. Cherry
St. in Galesburg in the spring of 1941, he did not imagine that within a few
months he would begin a forty-one year career with the CB&Q and BN
Railroads and become the Q's first mobile agent. The eighty-three year-old Galesburg resident was born in
Foley, Missouri in 1921. After graduating from Winfield High School in 1940, he
attended a business college in Chillicothe, Missouri where he learned typing
and telegraphy. The college placed
him on the Western Union job in Galesburg where he learned to teletype. Cliff heard that a young man who picked
up mail at the Western Union office had applied for an open teletype operator
job with the railroad. The young
man was drafted into the army, so the job remained open. Over his lunch break one day Cliff went
to the old Q depot on South Seminary St. to see Chief Dispatcher H.V. Lonis
about applying for the job. Mr.
Lonis gave Cliff a rough time by saying that he had misgivings about hiring a
Missourian, when, in fact, Lonis himself was from Missouri. He told Cliff to go across the hall to
see the company doctor who tested him for color blindness, diabetes, and
hearing. Cliff got the job, resigned
his Western Union job, and went to work for the railroad on August 1, 1941.
He
worked the teletype operator extra list (on call to fill vacancies) until
December, and then he worked regular first and second shift jobs seven days a
week at the old Willis Yard Office for sixty-seven and 1/2 cents an hour (he
had made thirty cents an hour on his Western Union job) until he was drafted
into the army in November, 1943.
He thinks the Yard Office was named for a Mr. Willis who engineered the
automated East Hump which went into operation in 1931. He worked seven eight-hours days each
week with no rest days, vacations, or holidays. The only way he could get a day off was to lay off without
pay. As a teletype operator Cliff
used a transmitter with a typewriter-like keyboard with numbers and all upper
case letters to send outbound train lists to the depot where a relay operator
took the tape of the train list from a receiver and transmitted it on to the
tape's addressees. For example,
Cliff addressed lists for Chicago-bound trains to the Aurora Division Chief
Dispatcher and Division Superintendent, the Cicero Yard Office, Congress Park,
the Superintendent of Transportation in Chicago, and the Galesburg Chief
Dispatcher. Early in Cliff's
career Paige Miller was the Aurora Division Superintendent, and Bill Abel was
the Galesburg Division Superintendent.
Harry Burke was the Galesburg Terminal Trainmaster, and Bud Ostrander
was the night General Yardmaster.
Cliff
said that the outbound train lists that he teletyped listed the addressees who
were to receive the lists followed by the train number, conductor's and
engineer's names, unit (locomotive) numbers, number of loads and empties, and
tonnage. Each car's initial and
number, tonnage, routing, and restrictions were then noted. Restrictions included livestock
information, such as when the livestock were loaded. The federal government strictly enforced regulations on the
transportation of livestock by rail.
They had to be watered, fed, and rested every thirty-six hours. Trains were stopped enroute to their
destinations to care for livestock, and the government imposed fines for
infractions. Cliff also noted on
his train lists if refrigerated cars had received ice in Galesburg.
As
a single man during his early railroad career Cliff ate at some of the many
restaurants in Galesburg in the early 40's, like New China, Bill's Lunch across
from the Orpheum Theater, and Coney Island. For a more expensive meal he sometimes went to American
Beauty on Main St. He remembered a
restaurant in the railroad yard south of the Rip Yard near Swansonville
operated by Helen Mead in an old dining car. It was nicknamed "The Beanery" and served meals
and coffee to on-duty railroad employees.
He chuckled when he told the story about the time Terminal
Superintendent Roy Dyer ran some coffee-drinking carmen out of "The
Beanery", and Helen Mead lit in to him for running off her business. Cliff rented a sleeping room on North
Kellogg Street for $3 a week.
Later he had a room at the old YMCA (corner of Seminary and Ferris Sts.)
which rented rooms to single men, but he had to find other accomodations when
the Army Air Corps moved young men into the Y who were taking classes at Knox
College to learn to be pilots. He
then took a sleeping room on Water Street. He rode a bike to the Willis Yard Office and sometimes
walked to work, a distance of three to four miles. He was on duty on second shift in 1942 when the new
automated West Hump was put into operation. He said there were many high railroad officials present when
the first car was humped.
Galesburg
Chief Dispatcher Lonis secured two six-month deferments from the military for
Cliff claiming he was needed on the railroad. He said that Mr. Lonis tried his darnedest to keep his
employees, because he didn't want to hire women to take their places. Eventually, with manpower requirements
for the armed services increasing during World War II, Cliff was drafted into
the army in November, 1943. He
received basic training at Camp Blanding, Florida and landed at Naples, Italy
in April, 1944 after twenty-eight days aboard ship in the Atlantic Ocean. He
served on the front lines as a rifleman in Co. G, 351 Infantry Regiment, 88th.
Division from July, 1944 until the end of the war in Europe in May, 1945 except
for three weeks that he spent in a Naples hospital in November, 1944 recovering
from mortar fragment wounds. For
his service he was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, three campaign
stars, the Combat Infantry Badge, and the World War II Victory Medal. He was discharged at Camp Grant near
Rockford on December 31, 1945.
Cliff
returned to the railroad in March, 1946 and worked teletype operator jobs all
three shifts and second shift operator at Willis Yard until September, 1960
when he became the station agent at Viola. There were many station agent jobs on the Q in those
days. In the vicinity of Viola
there were agents at Joy, Aledo, New Windsor, Alexis, Rio, Alpha, and
Henderson. Cliff said that agents
were looked up to in the small towns where they worked. They were the representatives of the
railroad. They worked days and
wore an agent's uniform and cap.
Citizens were impressed by their ability to telegraph (the telegraph was
taken out of Viola in 1960). As
the railroad's representative the small town agent had many duties. He ordered empty cars for his
customers, like grain companies, to load by calling the car distributor in
Galesburg. He made out switch
lists for the conductor on the local which serviced his town with instructions
on which cars to spot and pull. He
regularly talked with conductors and dispatchers about the timing of locals and
through freights. When a car was loaded
by a customer, he made out a bill of lading showing the car's initial and
number, contents, destination, routing, weight, and charges, and he sealed the
car. He kept track of demurrage
for cars on customers' property, and he collected for prepaid shipments. At Viola Cliff also handled "Less
Than Carload (LCL)" Railroad Express Agency (REA) shipments which were
delivered to the depot by Burlington Truck Lines out of Galesburg. He notified Viola businesses and
individuals that their REA shipments had arrived, and he collected the charges. He kept a daily balance sheet of money
on hand, owed, and remitted for freight charges and leased property. He filed monthly freight and REA
financial reports and was subject to unannounced visits by railroad
auditors. He handled small
OS&D (Over, Short, and Damaged) claims by customers, and if the claim were
large, like for dead livestock, he notified Special Agent Russ Johnson in
Galesburg to investigate. He
ordered his agency supplies, like blank forms and stamps, and did his own
janitor work.
Cliff
told me about a local that quit running in 1959. It was called the "Dolly Run". The Dolly originated in Galesburg, got
off the Main Line at Galva for the Joy Branch, and went through Nekoma,
Woodhull, Alpha, New Windsor, Viola, Gilchrist, Aledo, Joy, New Boston,
Keithsburg, Oquawka, got back on the Main Line at Gladstone, and returned to
Galesburg. Along its route it
picked up cream, and handled passengers, U.S. mail, REA and LCL shipments,
including many Sears Catalog items.
Being
a small town agent was not all a bowl of cherries. The old depots where the agents worked were often dingy, hot
in the summer and cold in the winter.
Cliff remarked how cold the depot at Viola was on cold winter Monday
mornings after sitting vacant over the weekend until he could get the coal
stove fired up. There was the
hassle of people coming into the depot with right of way problems and wanting
used ties. There was
monotony.
But
things were about to change. In
the mid-60's the Q looked at the feasibility of branch lines in terms of labor, equipment, and material
costs associated with track maintenance, locals, and numerous agents, and the
limited potential of business. To
lower costs and improve service R.G. Johnson, the Q's general sales manager for
the territory from Chicago to the Missouri River, came up with the concept of
mobile agents. Cliff Meadows
became the Q's first mobile agent in February, 1967. He was provided with a red, white, and black Ford P400 van
that had an 8 x 12 foot office equipped with typewriter, desk, chair, file
cabinet, settee for customers, heater, and air-conditioner. With a Motorola Motrac two-way radio he
was able to communicate with dispatchers and conductors on locals. In the van Cliff was able to go
directly to his customers in Joy, Viola, Gilchrist, and New Windsor on the Joy
Line. His headquarters was Aledo
where a separate agent remained on duty due to the volume of business
there. The November 20, 1967 issue
of Railway Age reported that
Cliff's customers in Joy, Gilchrist, Viola, and New Widnsor loaded 700 cars in
the first ten months of 1967.
Inbound cars came to them loaded with fertilizer, lumber, sand, gravel,
and livestock. They shipped out
grain, bricks, and livestock.
Customers included Rivoli Grain Co., Mercer Ready Mix, and Acme Lumber
Co. in New Windsor, Hamilton Soil Service, Farmers Grain & Supply, and
Doonan Implement Co. in Viola, Hydraulic Pressed Brick Co. near Gilchrist, and
the Gulf Co. (fertilizer), Galesburg Order Buyers, and Alexander Lumber Co. in
Joy. Railway Age reported that customers liked and appreciated the
convenience and personal service that Cliff was able to provide as a mobile
agent. It quoted Dan Hamilton of
Hamilton Soil Service in Viola as saying, "If they get rid of him [Cliff],
we'll get rid of the railroad."
When his daily duties in the field were completed, Cliff returned to
Aledo to complete a balance sheet of the day's business, and he phoned his
report to Alpha from where the information was relayed to Cicero and placed on
computerized car-records tape.
Cliff
worked mobile agent jobs headquartered at Aledo, Alpha, and Galva until
1977. From 1977 until he retired
in 1982 he worked relief operator and relief agent/operator jobs in Yates City
and agent jobs in Yates City and Galva.
Cliff's pride in his railroad service is obvious when he talks about
it. He is still a union member
(TCU), and he attends the weekly retiree breakfasts at the Grandview Restaurant
on Tuesdays. He fondly recalls some
of the men he worked with at Willis Yard many years ago, like Oscar Chinn, the
day operator, and Mills Westfall, the third shift operator, Bill Crain's father
Kenny who was Power Clerk, and Joe and Vince Morrissey's father Joe who had the
demanding job of lining up switchmen for all three shifts, handling no-bills,
and doing diversions. From his agent days he remembers Knox College graduate
Bill Morrow of the Joy Feed Mills as being a likable guy who was good to work
with, and East Local conductor C.E. Spillers as being a good conductor who
worked hard to accommodate his customers.
Mike
Hobbs